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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Home Tech Deals: Laptops

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We asked Louis Ramirez, senior features writer for bargain-hunting Web site Dealnews.com, to identify the best bargains in tech now. High-quality 17-inch laptops are among the hottest bargains, he says. Models with at least 8GB of RAM and hard drives of 500GB or more dipped to about $700 recently, and he expects them to drop further.

Among laptops equipped with Intel’s previous-generation processor, Sandy Bridge—which should do the job for most buyers—Asus, HP and Lenovo have some of the best prices. If you desire Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processor, deals on HP Pavilion laptops have been excellent.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Home Tech Deals: Music

Pieter M. van Hattem/Contour by Getty Images

Explore new music for free—and legally—at a variety of popular sites. One of our favorites is Amazon’s Artists on the Rise, a monthly collection of free MP3s from new musicians. The latest picks include The Alabama Shakes’ “Hold On.”

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Home Tech Deals: Discount Electronics

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Decide.com tracks when electronics, such as game consoles, phones and TVs, are likely to drop in price, based on new product launches and other prices posted across the Web. Users save an average of $87 on a purchase, according to the site. Download Decide’s app (Android, iPad, iPhone) to set price alerts and compare the cost of gadgets at nearby retailers.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Home Tech Deals: Apple

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Apple aficionados should look to authorized resellers, such as Amazon and Best Buy, for discounts. Recently Dealnews.com's Ramirez spotted a new 16GB iPad 2 with Wi-Fi—which retails for $399—for $340 through MicroCenter.com. And an 11-inch, current-generation Macbook Air notebook recently sold for $699—a $300 discount—through Adorama.com.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Home Tech Deals: E-books

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E-books may be a bargain compared to their paperback counterparts, but you can find even better deals for your e-reader Project Gutenberg has more than 39,000 free e-books available for Kindle, Android and Apple products. Even booksellers Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer free e-books.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Home Tech Deals: Blu-Ray

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Prices on brand-name Blu-ray players with built-in Wi-Fi connections have hit rock-bottom. Models from the likes of Panasonic, Samsung and Sharp are selling for about $50, and they will likely stay in that neighborhood through the summer, Dealnews.com's Ramirez says.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Home Tech Deals: TVs

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It’s not a bad time to buy a 46-inch HDTV, either. Prices on high-definition, flat-screen TVs have plummeted. Deals from Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba are averaging about $490—an all-time low for that size. But don’t settle for just a good price. You’ll find the lowest prices in early February following the Super Bowl. Retailers discount last year’s versions before the new ones come out in March.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Home Tech Deals: Wireless Phone Plans

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We’ve dialed up great deals for three types of plans.

Pay as you go.
For light cell-phone users who don’t want data service, prepaying for a bucket of minutes can save money. Allan Keiter, president of MyRatePlan.com, suggests using the T-Mobile Prepaid Pay As You Go plan and choosing the option of 1,000 minutes for $100. Your minutes won’t expire for a year.

Monthly no-contract.
Get unlimited voice minutes, text messaging and data service from Straight Talk for $45 per month. The carrier offers a variety of Android devices starting at $130.

Standard contract.
With a T-Mobile Value Plan, you either insert a T-Mobile SIM card (free with the Value Plan) into any compatible, unlocked GSM phone or purchase a full-price phone from T-Mobile (rather than a subsidized phone) and the carrier will reduce the monthly rate on a two-year contract. An individual plan with unlimited calling, text messaging and data (up to 2 gigabytes at full speed) runs $60 a month with the Value Plan, compared with $80 for a Classic Plan. Calculate whether your monthly savings over two years outweigh the extra cost of a phone (phones start at $110).

If you don’t want to order online and wait for shipping, check out Goodzer (iPhone), a “search engine” for local goods. Plug in the item you’re looking for and the app will show you nearby stores that carry that product.

At Scoutmob (Android, Blackberry, iPhone), unlike at Groupon and Living Social, you don’t have to purchase a voucher in
advance. Find a coupon, show up at the venue, show the cashier your phone, and claim the deal at the register.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Shopping Deals: Save Big Online

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From clothing to vacations, log in to save. Visit any of these flash-sale sites to snag luxe goods at bargain-basement prices. You may need to request an invitation, which could take a couple of days to clear.

Gilt.com, ShopItToMe and RueLaLa sell designer clothes for men, women and children at 40% to 70% off, depending on the site. For home furnishings, check out Onekingslane.com, which outfits your house with fashionable accents. Sales last three days.

Jetsetter.com sells luxury vacations for up to 50% off the retail price. Admission to the site is by invitation only, but you can request an invite on the home page. Sales last seven to ten days.

Some sites offer the amenities and prices of flash-sale sites without the lightning-quick promotions. Revolveclothing.com offers free shipping on men’s and women’s clothing.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Shopping Deals: Swap to Save

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Trade what you have for what you want. The upswell of collaborative consumption has helped spur the creation of services that pair people who need something with people who have it.

Swap.com lets you connect with 500,000 other swappers to trade items such as electronics, jewelry and books. There are currently 1.5 million items to choose from. If you want movies, try Swapadvd.com. You’ll get credits for DVDs you post and mail out. Then use the credits for movies you want. If you’re looking to rent or borrow something like a drill or a tennis racket, try Neighborrow.com or SnapGoods.com. Both sites connect you to people nearby.

If your kids are outgrowing their clothes, Thredup.com lets you get rid of old duds and find used ones that fit. And if you’re taking a trip, try Zimride.com for arranging rides from one city to another.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Shopping Deals: Social Media

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Interact with your favorite companies, and they’ll reward you.

Friending or following companies can unlock coupons, earn you freebies and alert you to time-sensitive deals the moment they surface. Getting deals may require you to tweet “at” the company or “like” a page, so make sure you don’t mind having your profile co-opted for advertising purposes.

Couponers can follow Retailmenot and CouponSherpa for a selection of the best coupons that day (having the offerings curated by Twitter helps narrow down the choices). For travel, follow your favorite airline on Twitter or Facebook—JetBlue Cheeps and Virgin America are two favorites—or use a travel site such as Airfare watchdog or Farecompare for flash sales and price-drop alerts.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Banking Deals: Free Checking at Online Banks

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Find free checking at a virtual bank.

A number of online banks offer FDIC-insured accounts with no monthly maintenance fees and free ATM withdrawals. Open an account with $1 at Fidelity and Schwab, which refund all ATM surcharges in the U.S. and abroad (you must have a brokerage account for both). ING Direct and Ally Bank also refund all ATM fees. Scottrade requires you have a brokerage account with them to open a bank account. A $100 deposit is needed to open the bank account, and Scottrade refunds all U.S. ATM fees. USAA Bank refunds up to $15 a month in ATM fees. At Schwab and State Farm Bank, you can also deposit checks or pay someone with your smart phone.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Credit Deals: No-Fee Balance Transfers

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The no-fee Citibank Diamond Preferred and Citibank Platinum Select Visa cards offer a 0% introductory rate for 18 months for both purchases and transferred balances (with a 3% balance-transfer fee). After that, the interest rate ranges from 11.99% to 21.99%. You receive 24-hour concierge serv­ice with the Diamond Preferred card. Each month, Platinum Select cardholders receive 10% of their purchases as Extra Cash dollars that can be used to lower the price of an item at participating retailers.

Get Cash Back: Earn 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent on bonus categories, such as gas stations and restaurants, that change each quarter and 1% on all other spending with the no-annual-fee Chase Freedom Visa card. If you max out your purchases on the bonus categories and spend a total of $18,000 a year, your rebate will be $420. Chase is offering a 0% rate on balance transfers and purchases for 15 months. After that, the interest rate will range from 12.99% to 22.99%, depending on your credit score.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Money Off for Good Behavior: Safe Driving

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Several insurers now offer extra breaks for safe drivers. Progressive’s Snapshot program gives you credit for driving fewer miles, less aggressively and during safer times of day. You plug a device the size of a garage-door opener into your car, which sends driving data—number of miles driven, sudden stops and time of day (speed and location are not tracked)—to Progressive for 30 days. Drivers with the safest habits can get discounts of up to 30%; the average savings is $150 per year. Allstate offers a similar program.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Money Off for Good Behavior: Healthy Living

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Healthy habits can also garner you a deal on life insurance. A 40-year-old man in good health can get a $500,000, 20-year term policy for as little as $355 per year. But if he smokes, his annual rate jumps to $1,450. And if he is also slightly overweight and has high cholesterol, his annual premiums could be $2,100 or more.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Money Off for Good Behavior: Regular Exercise

More employers are offering health-premium discounts, cash, gift cards or extra health savings account contributions to people who participate in wellness programs or take health-risk assessments.

You’ll pay less at this time of year to sculpt your six-pack abs by nabbing a deal on a gym membership. Look for cut-rate promotions during the summer lull in business, especially in June. Try haggling for an even steeper discount.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Money Off for Good Behavior: Smart Use of Credit

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Good credit habits—which translate into a higher credit score—can help you qualify for money-saving loan rates. For example, the average person with a FICO credit score in the top tier (760 to 850) pays $37,000 less in interest on a 30-year, $300,000 mortgage than someone with a score between 660 and 679.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on Appliances: Buy Used

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They’re as good as new and come with a warranty.

Save up to 80% on the cost of small appliances, electronics and tools by buying them “certified factory refurbished” through manufacturers or their authorized dealers. Returned or overstock items are inspected and serviced, tested and repackaged, and typically carry warranties of 90 days to two years. Recent examples: One-third off a KitchenAid stand mixer ($230 at www.shopkitchenaid.com) and a Dell Outlet Inspiron laptop ($333 versus $475 new at www.dell.com).

Time That Buy: New appliances hit stores in September and October. Shop Labor Day weekend for deep discounts on older models.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals When Eating Out

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Trim the cost of consuming calories.

Mini-size the movie snack.
A small drink and small popcorn at the Regal Majestic movie theaters recently cost $9. The kid-size Zap Pack—which includes a drink, popcorn and candy—runs $5.75. You don’t need to bring a kid (or an ID) to get this deal.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on Cars: Buy New

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Summer is a great time to nab a bargain. You’ll get the best deal with the best selection of options if you buy in August. For a steal, wait until Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Ford Fusion.
As dealers make room for the redesigned 2013 Fusion, the 2012 midsize (starting at $21,500) is selling for 19% off the sticker price, on average, according to TrueCar.com. The base model gets 23 miles per gallon in the city and 33 mpg on the highway.

Nissan Quest.
Whether you’re carrying kids or cargo, the Quest minivan (starting at $26,815) gets the job done with fold-flat second- and third-row seats and safety features such as available blind-spot warning. It gets 21 mpg overall. Recent discount: 11% off sticker price.

Jeep Liberty.
A redesigned Liberty will debut early next year, but the 2012 model (starting at $24,320) has been selling for 11% off sticker price. Popular with off-roaders, it gets you where you’re going with 210 horsepower and fuel economy of 18 mpg overall.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on Cars: Save at the Pump

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Take some of the sting out of filling up.

Use the right card.
Branded gas cards, such as the BP Visa or ExxonMobil MasterCard, have made it harder to redeem rewards, so stick to cash-back cards. The PenFed Visa Platinum Rewards card offers five points per dollar spent on gas purchases (plus three points on groceries and one point on all other purchases); you can redeem 5,000 points for a $50 prepaid Visa card. The TrueEarnings card from Costco and American Express offers 3% cash back on gas purchases, plus 2% at restaurants and 1% everywhere else.

Use an app for that.
Download the free GasBuddy app on your smart phone (available for Android, iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Phone) to find gas prices near your location. Sort the resulting list by distance or price for any gas grade, or view the results on a map. You can also search by city, state or zip code.

Earn bonus rewards.
Earn two points on every dollar spent on gas, groceries and utility payments, and one point on all other spending with the Barclaycard Rewards MasterCard. This no-fee card offers a 0% interest rate on purchases and balance transfers for 15 months, then charges 14.99% to 24.99%. Another good choice with a lower interest rate is the PenFed Visa Platinum Rewards card.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on College Degrees

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Earn a diploma for thousands less.You'll pay plenty for a top-tier college. But if you're interested in the following majors, you can get a great education at a value alternative (prices are the annual cost of undergraduate tuition and fees).

Or, take individual classes for free online. Saylor.org and University of the People offer dozens of free, high-quality classes. Or go straight to top-notch schools. Harvard, MIT and Stanford, to name a few, offer free online courses. Many others provide free course material online. It’s not for credit, but you take the same classes that enrolled students take. Visit the schools’ Web sites for more information.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals for Investors: Euro Stocks

The Continent’s crisis spells opportunity for investors. Investors have pounded European stocks over worries about the euro crisis. These three are undeservedly cheap (prices are as of June 1):

Sanofi (SNY, $33). From vaccines to animal health care, the French drug maker boasts a well-diversified product line. Earnings will take a hit this year in the wake of expiring patents for several key drugs. But growth should pick up in 2013 if products now in the late stage of testing, including one to treat diabetes and another for colon cancer, win approval. The acquisition of biotech firm Genzyme last year should also contribute to profits. Meanwhile, the stock, which is 17% off its 52-week high, yields a generous 5.0%.

Total (TOT, $42). The French energy giant’s shares have tumbled 26% since March 1, with investors concerned not only about falling oil prices but also about a leak in one of Total’s natural gas wells in the North Sea. The leak should be plugged soon, and damage is not likely to be great. The company is also investing in a slew of new projects that will boost oil and gas production and, therefore, earnings. The stock yields a hefty 6.2%.

Velti (VELT, $7). This Irish company manages mobile-ad campaigns for such companies as Intel and Johnson & Johnson. After we recommended the shares at $6.36 in our March issue (see “6 Winning Stocks for $10 or Less”), the stock popped to nearly $15 before retreating recently. Velti is well positioned to benefit from exploding sales in the mobile-ad market. Analysts see earnings soaring 46% in 2012.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals for Investors: Bargain ETFs

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The typical exchange-traded fund charges 0.5% a year. We found three, all from Vanguard, that go for a lot less. But expenses weren’t the only concern. We also considered fund size. Bigger ETFs typically have slimmer bid-ask spreads, costing you less to buy and sell shares.

Vanguard Total Stock Market (symbol VTI) charges a rock-bottom 0.06% in annual expenses. That means for each $10,000 you invest, you’ll pay $6 a year for operating expenses. This $20 billion fund also offers broad exposure to U.S. companies of all sizes and holds about 3,300 stocks.

The average bond ETF carries a 0.3% annual expense ratio. Vanguard Short-Term Bond (BSV) has $7.9 billion in assets and charges just 0.11% in expenses a year. And it has a short average duration (a measure of interest rate sensitivity) of just 2.7 years.

Vanguard MSCI EAFE (VEA), a $7.5 billion fund that tracks stocks of large foreign companies in developed markets, charges 0.12% per year.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on Travel: European Escapes

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London calls in April or October, when the weather is mild (in the 50s and only a bit rainier than usual) and sites are less crowded. And this year's Anglo autumn, suffering from post-Jubilee and post-Olympics withdrawal, may offer even bigger bargains than usual. "Historically, there's been a travel lull after any Olympics, and it can be a great time to snag some bargains," says Anne Banas, executive editor of SmarterTravel.com.

Bonjour, bargains. Expedia.com offers a discounted autumn stay in Paris, with five nights in the four-star Courtyard by Marriott Paris Defense West-Colombes. The package includes two round-trip tickets from Chicago by way of Dublin. If booked separately, the visit would cost $2,919; booking flight and hotel together costs $2,190, for a savings
of $729.

Time That Buy:Farecompare.com found that Tuesday at 3 p.m. is the cheapest time to buy a ticket. The cheapest day to fly? Wednesday.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on Travel: Island Getaways

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Save mucho dinero.
Extend summer into fall by flying south to the Dominican Republic in October. On CheapCaribbean.com, we found a deal for two round-trip tickets between Austin, Tex., and Punta Cana (which is rarely hit hard by hurricanes) and a six-night stay at the three-star Barceló Dominican Beach hotel. Airfare and hotel cost $2,560 when booked separately. But in a package the price drops $653, to $1,907.

Head to Aruba in April or September to get away from it all for less. The threat of hurricanes blows visiting crowds far from the Caribbean in late summer and early fall. But Aruba and the southernmost islands are a safe distance from most storms.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on Travel: Hawaiian Vacations

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Say aloha to savings.
A Hawaiian vacation booked on Travelocity.com includes two round-trip flights between the Washington, D.C., area and Honolulu and eight nights at the four-star Aqua Waikiki Wave in Waikiki. Booked separately, the trip would cost about $3,440. Bundled, it goes for $2,258—saving you $1,182.

Cruise from Alaska to Hawaii in September, when ships need to relocate for the season. You can hop aboard such "repositioning" cruises at deeply discounted rates. You'll have to pay for the one-way flights to your departure port and from the arrival port.

Time That Buy: The best time to book a cruise is January through March, known as “wave season.” That’s when cruise lines unleash summer cruise deals to compete for customers.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on Travel: Trip to Tokyo

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Domo arigato for discounted deals.
On Orbitz.com, you get two round-trip tickets from San Francisco to Tokyo and six nights at the four-star Hotel Niwa Tokyo in October. The package costs $2,769, or $222 less than booking airfare and hotel separately.

Get the Best Price:
After buying airfare, enter your itinerary and the amount you paid for the tickets into Yapta. The site will let you know if the price drops enough in the following weeks to qualify you for a refund, voucher or flight credit. For airlines that charge a fee to change or cancel tickets (often $75 to $150), the drop must be sufficient to overcome the
expense.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on Travel: Colorado's Calling

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Hit the Colorado slopes in April or November for huge savings. For example, at the Village at Breckenridge Resort in early November, you’d pay less than half the cost to stay during the fringe of ski season than for a Christmas visit. And even if the powder isn’t prime, you can enjoy other area activities, such as golfing, mountain biking, horseback riding and hot-air-balloon rides.

Get the Best Flight + Hotel:
Plug your itinerary into the Bing Price Predictor for advice on whether to buy plane tickets or wait until fares drop further. The tool saves customers about $50 per round-trip transaction, according to Bing. When you reserve one of Tingo.com’s thousands of “Money Back” hotel rooms, you’re automatically rebooked at a cheaper rate if the price drops. Options range from the Wynn in Las Vegas and Waldorf-Astoria in New York City to various Hiltons, Marriotts and other chain hotels.

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2012 Guide to Scoring the Best Deals

Deals on Real Estate: Big Box Mortgage

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Land a home-loan discount from Costco.

Ten participating lenders have agreed to cap their fees to process, approve and complete mortgage loans for Costco customers. Costco Executive members pay $600 or less and GoldStar members pay $750 or less for a mortgage, compared with the marketplace norm of 1% or more of the loan amount. (You’ll still have to pay closing costs.) The lenders consistently undercut market leaders on the annual percentage rate (interest rate plus fees) by 0.125% to 0.250% for conforming loans and 0.250% to 0.375% for jumbos, says John Alexander, director of Costco Mortgage Services with First Choice Bank. The mortgage services website offers examples of lender fees and savings for its members.